Sensational Haiku Wednesday is hosted by Jenn at You know… that Blog?. Mahalo Jenn for hosting.

The basics:

Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!). You can get further information by clicking HERE.

This week’s theme is: RESOLUTIONS

Problems and Conflicts
There is a power to solve
Positive Thinking

Have a Sensational Haiku Wednesday!

Many of you wanted to know what was in the package from The Muffed Target – #18. The red was the tissue paper inside the box. Here’s the gift. A shirt and pants for Myrna from her daughter Jackie (and I could have used it for the Muffed Target as well – I’m beginning to think I need to get with the program when taking pictures big time LOL).

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Sylvia at Sylvia From Over The Hill sent this in. Mahalo Syliva. Much appreciated You can click on HERE to see the photos. They are amazing.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Kailani at An Island Life is hosting a monthly photo contest. Mahalo Kailani for this contest. I look forward to it each month. Direct from her blog comes the following:

“New! There will now be (2) winners each month!

Every month, An Island Life will be hosting a photo contest with a specific theme. For April it will be Mother’s Day.

Here’s how it works:

* From now until May 11th, post a photo on your blog that best represents Mother’s Day to you. Don’t forget to include a link back here so others can join in on the fun, too.
* It doesn’t have to be a recent picture but it does have to be one taken by you.
* Then come back and leave your link to your entry in the Mr. Linky below.
* The voting will begin on May 13th and run till May 15th. Get all your friends to vote for you!
* There will be (2) winners: the one with the most votes & one random entry. These winners will be announced on May 17th.
* That’s it!

The entry with the most votes will receive:

* $20 to Amazon.com or via PayPal
* An award button
* Their entry posted at An Island Life with a link back to your site.

One random entry will receive:

* $10 to Amazon.com or via PayPal
* Their entry posted at An Island Life with a link back to your site.

So start thinking about your Mother’s Day entry and enter it today! Good luck!”

My Mom

Mother’s Day of course means Mom. And I want to wish my Mom a very Happy Mother’s Day. Many of you know that she is my best friend and my rock. She is absolutely the best Mom that any child could hope to have. She has been there for me through thick and thin and it just doesn’t seem like I will ever be able to say enough Thank You’s for all she has done for me throughout my life. So Ma I just want to say Thank You and a big Mahalo. I send you all my love and hope you have a wonderful day. Hau’oli La Makuahine. Me Ke Aloha.

In addition I would like to wish all of the other Mom’s out there a very Happy Mother’s Day as well and I hope it is the best for you all. So this is what Mother’s Day means to me. A Mom that is special in all ways to her family. A Mom that sometimes we take for granted. A Mom that loves unconditionally. A Mom that is a Jack of All Trades and a Master of them all. A Mom – A Friend. Here is my entry. I hope you enjoy.

Ma with her family

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Click Here For Images &
Happy Birthday Balloons Pictures

Lyn at A Blog In The Rough is having a birthday today. WOOT!!! I hope you have a great day and I wish you many many more my friend. HBD!

The following were sent in by Sylvia at Sylvia From Over The Hill sent this in. Mahalo Syliva. Much appreciated

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Kailani at An Island Life is hosting a monthly photo contest. Mahalo Kailani for this contest. I look forward to it each month. Direct from her blog comes the following:

“New! There will now be (2) winners each month!

Every month, An Island Life will be hosting a photo contest with a specific theme. For April it will be What Easter Means to Me.

Here’s how it works:

* From now until April 7th, post a photo on your blog in regards to what Easter Means To You. Don’t forget to include a link back here so others can join in on the fun, too.
* It doesn’t have to be a recent picture but it does have to be one taken by you.
* Then come back and leave your link to your entry in the Mr. Linky below.
* The voting will begin on April 9th and run till April 12th. Get all your friends to vote for you!
* There will be (2) winners: the one with the most votes & one random entry. These winners will be announced on April 14th.
* That’s it!

The entry with the most votes will receive:

* $20 to Amazon.com or via PayPal
* An award button
* Their entry posted at An Island Life with a link back to your site.

One random entry will receive:

* $10 to Amazon.com or via PayPal
* Their entry posted at An Island Life with a link back to your site.

So start thinking about what Easter Means To You and capture it on film! Your entry could win you a great prize! Good luck!

May’s Theme: Mother’s Day”

Easter, as with most holidays in my opinion, mean kids. The night before Easter, we would get all the kids, cousins and friends included, and over to the house they would come. Most of the parents just stayed outside drinking and pupuing and Uncle Thom and a few other Aunty’s would help get the kids organized and we would have them dye eggs. And let me tell you it was an experience I will cherish for a lifetime. We separated the young kids on a smaller table and all the older kids on the kitchen table and off they would go. It was really fun and the kids had a blast. Afterwards they would play and Uncle Thom and the Aunty’s would go join the other adults outside. Was good fun. The next day before any of the kids arrived for the Easter Egg Hunt I would hide all the eggs in the yard that they dyed the night before. We would also make prize eggs and hide them and made sure every one of the kids got one. So my entry for What Easter Means to Me is a picture, that this year will be 5 years old and it’s sort of grainy if you make it bigger, but oh well, of the kids dying eggs. I hope you enjoy.

Kids dying Easter eggs

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Kailani at An Island Life is hosting a monthly photo contest. Mahalo Kailani for this contest. I look forward to it each month. Direct from her blog comes the following:

Springtime to me, as does any other season, is best when you have kids involved and just enjoying a beautiful day in the yard and the memories that will be with you for a lifetime. This photo was taken May 25, 2003. So here is my entry of a nice Spring day. I hope you enjoy.

JK, Kahili and Sasha

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

You Are Blunt Yet Charming

You tell it like it is, and you don’t mince words. You speak your mind, and you use a lot of colorful language. This sort of brutal honesty would put most people off, but for some reason, it only makes you more charming. You live life exactly how you want to – no apologies. You act quickly and decisively. And you don’t second guess yourself. By being assertive, you have gained the respect of many. People may not agree with you all the time, but they do admire you.

Mahalo Harriet at Harriet and Friends for sending the following beautiful pictures in. Much appreciated.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Kailani at An Island Life is hosting a monthly photo contest. Mahalo Kailani for this contest. I look forward to it each month. Direct from her blog comes the following:

Love is to me family and friends. There is nothing more loving than a Tutu and her great grandson enjoying a peaceful sleep.

Tutu and Ali'i sleeping. Night Night!!!

Now I wont be reminding everyone as much this time to vote, but I will do some. I already see more entries this month so the competition is going to be greater. And when you vote, please vote for the one that YOU think should win. I thank you all who voted last month. As you might know we won. Hooray!!!

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Donna at The Brenda Photo Challenge Blog is starting up her Photo Challenges again. She took a break over the holidays. Mahalo Donna for hosting this. Direct from her blog comes the following:

There are very specific instructions on how to link up. Please CLICK HERE for further instructions. Here is my entry:

March 8, 2009 my Grandmother passed away. She got ill in October of 2008 while I was in Carson City visiting my family. She never got better. It was hard on my mom to have to handle her during her final months, but she did. Thank you Ma. You are the best. And so was my Grandmother. She ruled the family with an iron fist. It was Ruth’s way or no way. But we all loved and idolized her. She was a great cook and a very spoiling Grandmother. We got basically anything we wanted. You wanted an opinion, she had it. I think that’s where I get mine from to tell you the truth. Anyway I loved her to death and was sad when she passed away but she is Resting in Peace. Oh my poor Grandfather. LOL. Love you GM. Here are three photos. The first one is of my Grandmother and Grandfather and the last two her final resting spot. It’s called the Wall of Love.

GM and GF

GM's plaque

Ma standing next to GM

I will be out of town when this posts and will be back later next week. So I will comment on anyone’s when I get back.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Click Here For Images &
Congratulations Pictures – Pictures

The Honolulu Police Department has a new Lieutenant today. She is just one of a handful, along with other promoted ranks, that go into effect today at HPD. The ceremony was held January 20th and today is when the promotions actually happen. It was a ceremony with only one speech by Chief Kealoha as they just got down to business by acknowledging all those being promoted. Congratulations Lisa on your promotion. I’m real proud of you. You are gonna be a great Lieutenant. If you go to my Flickr account you can see all the pictures. I don’t know why the pictures inside were all so blurry but that’s just me and I posted them anyway. LOL. Sorry Lisa about that. Good thing Lori was there to take good photos LOL.

Major McCauley, Ellen - Lisa's mom, and Lisa

By a margin of 11 to 1 FOR the quizzes shall continue. Mahalo to all of you who took the time to vote in my poll. I appreciate it.

Nicole at NicoleB Photography has presented January Photo challenge – Go black and white. Thanks Nicole for doing the challenge. The rules are simple:

“My challenge to my fellow Photogeeks out there is to gather information about b&w photography and share what you found with the Rest of us. Including your new photos.”

This will be my final post for the January Photo Challenge – Go Black and White. What I want to share with you this week is thanks to Carletta at ROUND THE BEND. She gave me a great site to learn from. It’s called, and you can click on it’s name to take you to the site, Digital Photography School. I didn’t know this even existed and I have subscribed to it in my reader and it comes out with some great information. Mahalo Carletta. I really appreciate it. I would also like to thank Nicole at NicoleB Photography for leaving me the tips on my blog about Macros. Much appreciated as well my friend.

So for my final color to black and white I decided to show Lisa’s new badge for her becoming a Lieutenant. I used Picasa with this and tried the different black and white settings it has and liked this one the best. I hope you enjoy.

Lisa's Badge

Lisa's Badge B&W

Click Here For Images &
Thank You So Much Pictures – Pictures

Stacie at Super Mommy To The Rescue as awarded me the Happy 101 Blog Award. Thank you so much Stacie. I’m honored and grateful that you thought of me. I really appreciate it. This award comes with the following rules:

Again Stacie Thank You so much. I really do appreciate it.

One last thing. I keep saying on my posts that I’m not going to be here next week. Actually I will be here until Thursday. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused. What I was attempting to do, feebly, is that the meme’s I normally do I wouldn’t be participating in the next week.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Kailani at An Island Life is hosting a monthly photo contest. Mahalo Kailani for this contest. I look forward to it each month. Direct from her blog comes the following:

The New Year to me means getting family and friends all together at your house early on New Years Eve, making LauLau‘s from scratch all day and steaming them into the night, along with Chicken Long Rice and other Hawaiian food and celebrating at midnight good health, happiness and love throughout the New Year. Here’s my entry for the contest.

Ali'i, Pila and myself cleaning the luau and ti leaves

I will be reminding you all to vote from January 24 til January 27th.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

“My challenge to my fellow Photogeeks out there is to gather information about b&w photography and share what you found with the Rest of us. Including your new photos.”

Well I finally pulled out the manual for my camera for this one. And yes it can take Black and White photos. WOOT!!! It’s a Canon Powershot G10. So that’s what I’ve learned this time. And what I’ve also learned is going from Black and White to Color is 1: either it’s impossible or 2: I don’t know enough about RBG to do it correctly. I tried it with Canon ZoomBrowser EX, Picasa, Paint and GIMP with all the same results. I pick one of them and the whole picture turns that color. Oh well. Another thing I learned is that I need more practice with Macros. The center of the picture is always blurry to me. So the following two pictures are the Hibiscus in our yard. I hope you enjoy.

Hibiscus in Yard

Macro of Hibiscus

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

“My challenge to my fellow Photogeeks out there is to gather information about b&w photography and share what you found with the Rest of us. Including your new photos.”

I have learned in this go round that Picasa lets you sharpen the pictures. These are from Saturday’s Duck Tour. The first one is inside the Arizona Memorial. The next two are from inside the Bowfin. It’s a menu and pictures they have hanging up there. The last two are something I thought I would try. They have these telescopes and a periscope there. I put my camera up to the lens and snapped away. I must say that the black and whites look much sharper and give me a more real feel of The Arizona Memorial and the Mighty Mo. And to me, they do look sharper. I also really like the cross hairs showing. I hope you enjoy these.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou

Captain Bruce was hysterical throughout the tour. He had been with them for 6 years and you can tell. He’s got his spiel down pat and does a very good job. There were some parts where he went off on a tangent on some things and it was tedious, put for the most part he was entertaining. Well if you have never been on one of these amphibious machines, let me tell you, they don’t move fast at all. We were lucky to hit 25 MPH I’m sure of it. But it was fun and entertaining all the way out to the Arizona Memorial. When we got there, Captain Bruce had to get our tickets to go through the little movie you see about the Arizona Memorial and then the boat tour to see the Memorial itself. Well we had about 2 hours to kill so Charley said he wanted to see the Bowfin Submarine Museum.

Let me tell you that was the highlight of the tour. If you have never been on a submarine, it is a real learning experience. It took a little over an hour I would say and was just fantastic. I could never have served on a submarine. It’s too cramped of quarters and everything is so small. You should see the hatches you have to go through. They are made for very tiny people. Anyway, it was just amazing to learn about submarines and as I say, it was the highlight for me of our day.

We then go to the theater to await for our 11:40 show time and it’s running 20 minutes late. No biggy. We go and watch the show which was packed full of the event’s of December 7, 1941. I had seen this before, but it’s been years. So it was great to see it again. Then over to the Memorial we go. It’s like a 5 minute boat ride across the harbor. It’s a solemn place but being truthful it doesn’t do much for me. As I told Quilly and Charley, I guess it’s because I wasn’t alive during that time. Yes I’m sorry it happened and am proud of the military and all, but Ground Zero would have a much bigger impact on me as I lived to experience that. No I wasn’t actually there, but I lived it through the TV. Anyway, it was a great seeing it again. It makes me very proud to be an American.

So we are done with that and then comes what all three of us have been looking forward to going into the water finally. Well slowly we make our way to Keehi Lagoon and Captain Bruce stops right before going down the ramp, shifts gears or engages the sailing part of this machine and down we go. It was a blast to be in the water. It’s just like being in a boat. We didn’t go far, but just far enough to enjoy. All three of us also agreed that we weren’t in the water long enough, but what do you do.

So we get done with that, back up the ramp and slowly start our way back through town and back to the Ala Moana Hotel and he drops us off. Quilly made sure that she got the duck whistles she paid for. Quack Quack. I must say it was a very entertaining day. But the best part was spending it with Quilly and Charley. Yes they are a hoot and that “He Said” “She Said” that she posts frequently really does happen. I am happy to report that I was your fly on the wall for that one. Oh yeah, we had hot dogs for lunch. Mmm Mmm good. I took plenty of pictures. You can view them all on My Flickr Account by clicking this link. I also have some other photos that I have taken here that I will share in upcoming meme’s. WOOT!!!

Thanks Quilly and Charley for the fantastic day. You two are the bomb and I’m glad to be able to spend a little bit more time with you before you take off for your new beginning.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.

A Hui Hou